Global Warming, Climate Change, and the Kyoto Protocol

Australia is known for many things: kangaroos, koala bears, whale watching, surfing, swimming with dolphins, and grilled shrimp on the barbie. But that’s not all it’s famous for: The Great Barrier Reef brings in hundreds of thousands of tourists to Australia every year. The Great Barrier Reef is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the natural world[1], was granted World Heritage status in 1981,[2] and is larger than the Great Wall of China.[3] The reef consists of 300 coral cays, 600 tropical islands, and 3,000 individual reef systems.[4] But, the Great Barrier Reef is more than a tourist attraction or an economic resource: it’s a network of marine sanctuaries and, unfortunately, it is dying.[5]

Global Warming and the Great Barrier Reef

In the past thirty years, the Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half of its…